The deer issue as it pertains to the Rochester, NY
area. (Odocoileus virginiamus) Deer populations will increase with
Climate Change. Is giving out more deer permits the answer?

"Historically, the majority of the car-deer accidents happen between
5:30 and 7:30 a.m. or between 5:30 and 8 p.m. — the hours that coincide
with dawn and dusk as well as the times the most cars are on the road."
--DEC.

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Blasting Deer

There are times, admittedly, when a chronic problem gets solved
by the perfect solution--a clever, easy answer costing almost
nothing and profitable to boot. The Expanded Bottle bill (bill no)
is an example. It seeks to keep water and juice containers off the
roadside and out of the landfills. Providing a return on these
items and reconstituting spent containers into raw materials for new
products is an incentive to make our economy work for our
environment. Elegant. The only ones against this proposal are the
companies that are presently enjoying a boon on the limited
returnable we recycle now by being able to keep our money from
bottles not returned. That godsend would stop with the new bill.

Another
seemingly perfect solution is solving the deer problem by
instituting the year-round hunting of deer. Neat. It grabs many as
the perfect solution to a major nuisance. I've hit a couple of deer
myself driving in the county late into the night. Think of it: We
would reduce a major nuisance by allowing hunters to hunt their
favorite quarry all year long, which would add to the state coffers
in license fees and guns and bullets and save the farming industry
that might (as the article suggests) metamorphose into malls.

But, if you think about it, year-round hunting is as dubious an
answer to the deer problem as the crow shoot is outside of
Syracuse. There a tavern hosts a yearly crow shoot outside the city
to ostensibly stem the city crow population. Yet, however
satisfying to the shooters, blasting country crows do not reduce the
city crow numbers. It's just a lame excuse to have fun.

Seriously, there is a practical problem with year-round deer
hunting, an ethical qualm and a major environmental drawback with
this idea. First, spring and summer hikers and campers (paying
tourists) are not going to feel comfortable having to compete with
forest space with armed hunters. Secondly, the questionable ethics
of kidding oneself that killing deer all year round is fulfilling a
higher goal of saving the environment is so transparent as to be
self-evident. Let's be honest, hunting is a sport--we don't need
the meat. From the animal activist’s view, deer mean us no harm,
and there is a case to be made that we demean ourselves pleasuring
in the slaughtering of a harmless. Then, there is the problem of
trying to control our environment with a bullet.

The destruction of farm goods by deer (80%, the aforementioned
article mentions sounds wildly high) and other problems related to
deer have to be placed in the context of a complete environmental
profile. In other words, the species in question has shaped and
been shaped by our environment It plays a vital role in our
environment, animals and plant life, or it wouldn't have flourished
so well in it. Before blasting them into extinction like we did
many other species we targeted for removal we ought to gain a
complete picture of their role in the very surroundings that keep us
alive.

New York State deer populations are predicted to grow as Climate
Change changes our environment. Is just giving out more deer hunting
permits the answer to this problem?

Increasing Deer Populations High deer populations in
many areas of New York State cause concern for resource
managers, farmers, and homeowners. In addition to damage caused
to residential landscape plants and agricultural crops,
selective feeding of white-tailed deer alters plant community
structure and can negatively affect the health and diversity of
forests and other natural areas. Through their direct effects on
plants, deer have cascading effects on many other wildlife
species. Many of the preferred forage species of deer, such as
sugar maple and oaks, are valued for timber or as foodproducing
trees for wildlife. Deer also feed on wildflowers like trillium
and lady slipper, but they tend to avoid ferns, invasive species
like garlic mustard and barberry, and native tree species such
as American beech and striped maple. Selective feeding of deer
has led to dominance of ferns and grasses (Horsley and Marquis,
1983), along with invasive species and monocultures of beech in
some New York forests (Stromayer and Warren, 1997).
Over-browsing by deer leads to loss of forest understory
vegetation that is an important habitat and food source for many
songbirds and other forest wildlife. (Pages 171/172
Report 11-18 Response to Climate Change in New York State (ClimAID)Responding
to Climate Change in New York state: the ClimAid integrated
assessment for effective Climate Change adaptation in New York
state (November 2011)

Use extreme caution when driving at dawn or dusk, especially
from late October through December and when visibility is poor;

Slow down when approaching deer are standing near the roadside,
since they may bolt at the last minute as a car comes closer,
often sprinting onto the road;

If you see a deer cross the road, be alert for others that
may follow;

Use flashers of a headlight signal to warn other drivers
when you spot deer near the road;

Be alert and use extreme caution when traveling through
deer crossing areas, which are usually marked with road signs.

Find out about the new deer disease moving across New York State:
Epizootic Hemorrhagic
Disease in New York State - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
"Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is the most important infectious
viral disease among white-tailed deer. The landmark outbreak of
the virus was identified and described in New Jersey in 1955. It
occurs every year in many southeastern states and has been recently
reported throughout the mid-Atlantic. In states where the disease
has been detected, it has not had a significant negative impact
on the long-term health of the deer herd. It tends to infect only
localized pockets of animals within a geographic area."

Chronic Wasting Disease
- The mission of the CWD Alliance is to promote responsible
and accurate communications regarding CWD, and to support strategies
that effectively control CWD to minimize its impact on wild,
free-ranging deer and elk populations

NYS DEC Deer Management Program New Yorkers greatly appreciate
white-tailed deer. People enjoy them in many ways. However, deer
often cause problems for farmers, homeowners and foresters and can
cause road hazards. If not properly managed, deer numbers can increase
dramatically. This increases problems for people and impairs the
condition of the deer. It also damages the habitat of deer and other
wildlife. The Department of Environmental Conservation tries to
manage deer numbers. The goal is to balance deer with their habitat,
human land uses and recreational interests. Ecological concerns
and the needs of landowners, hunters, and other interest groups
must be considered. How does DEC manage deer? How are decisions
made about how many deer there should be? This website gives some
basics on New York's deer management program.

Deer Venison Donation Program You've heard the story, more deer
every year, fewer hunters, more crop damage, more car-deer collisions
. . . and even more needy. Yes, more needy.

Venison Donation Coalition
A conservative estimate of more than 1,000,000 whitetail deer, roam
New York State, according to the NYS Department of Environmental
Conservation's' Bureau of Wildlife. We count on hunters’ harvest
to maintain healthy herds and to minimize the amount of annual deer
damage. The deer hunter’s and farmers harvest can be donated, processed
and distributed to help feed the hungry throughout New York State.
Because donated deer must be professionally processed, the Venison
Donation Coalition has coordinated a program where legally tagged
and properly field-dressed deer can be taken to participating processors...at
no cost to the hunter or farmer.

Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780) - Encyclopedia of Life
"The White-tailed Deer is distinguished from the Mule Deer by
the smaller size of its ears, the color of its tail, and most
strikingly, by antler shape. In Whitetails, the main beam of the
antlers grows forward rather than upwards, and each tine
develops as its own separate branch rather than being split into
a forked pair. The two species also run differently when they
are alarmed. Mule Deer stot, a boing-boing-boing motion in which
all four feet leave and hit the ground with each bound, whereas
White-tailed Deer spring forward, pushing off with their hind
legs and landing on their front feet. Today White-tails are very
widespread in North America: there may be as many as 15 million
in the United States. These Deer are adaptable browsers, feeding
on leaves, twigs, shoots, acorns, berries, and seeds, and they
also graze on grasses and herbs. In areas where they live
alongside Mule Deer, the species naturally separate
ecologically, the Whitetails staying closer to moist streams and
bottomlands, the Mule Deer preferring drier, upland places. "
Encyclopedia of Life

The Mississippi not a barrier to deer disease A recently
completed genetic study of deer in Wisconsin and Iowa indicates
that the Mississippi River does not present much of a barrier to
the spread of deadly chronic wasting disease. "There might as
well not be a river there" for all the good it does in
separating Wisconsin deer, which are infected with chronic
wasting disease, and Iowa deer, which have yet to test positive
for the fatal neurological ailment, said Krista Lang, an Iowa
State University graduate student who wrote her master's thesis
on the two-year research project. (July 12, 2010)
Quad-City Times: Quad Cities,
IA/IL

The Deer Management
Simulator or DMS is a general, yet powerful simulation tool
developed for the National Park Service by Ken L. Risenhoover and
H. Brian Underwood (USGS) and was specifically designed to assist
natural resource specialists attempting to manage problems relating
to overabundant ungulate populations.

Whitetails on the
Web The white-tailed deer is the most popular big game animal
in North America. This page is dedicated to those who spend countless
hours in the field, year after year, in a lifetime of study of these
cunning masters of elusiveness.

Keys for Successful Policy by Daniel J. Decker and Lisa C. Chase.
"Problems addressed in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginiamus)
management have changed dramatically during the twentieth century.
The need for protection and restoration has passed, as white-tailed
deer have emerged from scarcity to achieve overabundance. Wildlife
managers now commonly attempt to reduce conflicts between people
and deer inhabiting areas where deer were scarce a decade or two
ago.

Deer Search
is a private organization that tracks wounded deer and bear with
leashed
tracking dogs. Most of us are hunters and our goal is to reduce
crippling losses during hunting season. The majority of us live
in New York State and are members of one of the two New York chapters
of Deer Search. We also have out of state members who track under
licenses and rules issued by their own state.

Deer_PaperSubmitted for publication
by the VA/WV Horticultural Society. Presented at the Annual Meeting
in Roanoke, Virginia on January 12, 1999 by: Jonathan S. Kays, Regional
Extension Specialist-Natural Resources, University of Maryland Cooperative
Extension When deer significantly damage crops, forests, or vehicles,
they are considered to be a nuisance. The best approach to control
deer damage is an integrated pest management (IPM) plan, which includes
careful monitoring of any one, or combination of, the following
strategies: population management, fencing, repellents, or vegetation
management. Although nonlethal techniques can help minimize damage
caused by deer in any one area, the lack of any population control
will likely result in an increasing population and the problems
associated with this increase. Controlling deer damage requires
a comprehensive program.

Chronic
Waste Disease Chronic wasting disease (CWD)
is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of deer and elk.
To date, this disease has been found only in cervids (members of
the deer family) in North America. First recognized as a clinical
"wasting" syndrome in 1967 in mule deer in a wildlife research facility
in northern Colorado, it was identified as a TSE in 1978. CWD is
typified by chronic weight loss leading to death. There is no known
relationship between CWD and any other TSE of animals or people
--from USDA. United States Department
of Agriculture's Home Page

Chronic
Wasting Disease This site is a joint project of the Boone and
Crockett Club, Mule Deer Foundation, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
These non-profit wildlife conservation organizations formed the
Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance in January 2002 to address CWD.
Other organizations have since joined the Alliance.